VIL] THE TWO ETONIANS. 333

 

favourites. Oxley, who was ‘in the Boats, and high
up in the fifth form, wasa tall strongly-built boy, with
perhaps a trifle too much flesh on him, but with plenty
of muscle and, so fellows said, lots of pluck. Sundridge,
also a ‘Wet-bob’ (according to the Eton expression
to signify a boy who prefers boating to cricket); Penti-
man, a spare, thin boy, in the same remove with
Oxley, and reputed to be very fast ; Moore, a short
thick-set boy, who looked as if he could last; and
Ethelston, a ‘ Dry-bob,’ and one of the eleven. Each
of these five had many supporters: the ‘Aquatics’
were divided between Oxley and Sundridge; the
‘“Dry-bobs’ between Ethelston and Penliman ; whilst
Moore, who had not yet attained to the dignity of the
fifth form, had many partisans among the ‘ lower boys,’
who would have considered his victory their own. It
is unnecessary to speak of the other four starters, who
had probably entered rather for the credit of the
thing, than with any hope of winning, since the above-
named five were confessedly the best.

Great then was the excitement when the long-
expected day arrived and the relative merits of the
competitors were about to be proved. It may easily be
understood that the latter were themselves not among
the least excited: no light honour was it accounted to
be the winner of the School Steeple-chase, and if the
choice had been offered to any boy of either bearing
off this honour or being ‘sent up for good’ half a
dozen times, I have little doubt that, in the great
majority of cases, the choice would have been in
favour of the athletic as opposed to the scholastic
distinction. Be that as it may, however, the five